| Term | Definition |
|---|
| producer | an organism that can make its own food |
| consumer | an organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms |
| herbivore | consumers that eat only plants |
| carnivore | consumers that eat only animals |
| omnivore | consumers that eat both plants and animals |
| scavenger | a carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms |
| decomposer | organisms that break down wastes nad dead organisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystem |
| food chain | a series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy |
| food web | a web consisting of the many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem |
| energy pyramid | the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web |
| biome | a group of land ecosystems with similar climates and organisms |
| canopy | the leafy roof of a rainforest formed by tall trees |
| understory | a second layer of shorter trees and vines beneath the canopy |
| desert | an area that receives less than 25 centimeters of rain per year |
| grassland | an area that is populated mostly by grasses and other non-woody plants |
| savanna | an area that recieves as much as 120 centimeters of rain each year |
| deciduous tree | trees that shed their leaves and grow new ones each year |
| coniferous tree | trees that produce their seeds in cones and have leaves shaped like needles |
| tundra | an extremely cold and dry biome |
| permafrost | the frozen soil of a tundra |
| estuary | a place where the fresh water of a river meets the salt water of the ocean |
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